Drs. Kaplan and Norton have focused their thoughts on strategy on the most pertinent topic in the American economy today, managing strategy in a downturn. In their most recent blog posting, Drs. Kaplan and Norton ask whether the Balanced Scorecard Concept could have helped some of today's failing industries, using the financial and auto sectors as examples. Can a Balanced Scorecard approach help industries be aware of and mitigate some of their risk?

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Companies have become overly reliant on Business Intelligence to focus decision making on results. While the reporting, query, and analytical tools are important to the success of a business, an accumulation can bog down the decision making process. Many companies are turning away from such BI-centric methodology and refocusing resources on Performance Management.

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Palladium's Managing Director and CMO sent out a note this morning exploring Cari Tuna's article in today's Wall Street Journal.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal, "Executives Shift to Survival Mode," reports that The Conference Board has reconfirmed that executing strategy remains the number one issue facing executives worldwide. Palladium's value proposition addresses this issue directly, now prominently featured in the banner at the top of our home page:

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In a recent article in McKinsey Quarterly (Sept 2008) they wrote about managing IT during a downturn. They stressed the importance of not making across the board cuts, but that it was now more important than ever to look at IT's role in the business and be more strategic (read selective) in what investments and reductions are made. Our strategy maps, scorecards, and initiative management processes and practices can help companies navigate these treacherous waters in a resource constrained world. We should listen for these cues during our client and prospect conversations and think about how we can help them make better decisions that will address short term issues, yet still position our clients for longer term success when things turn positive. Remember those who make the better decisions now will do better (survive longer) and be positioned for the next upturn in the economny.

Did you know that the ESM can automatically evaluate the performance of your measures?

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In today's demand-driven and increasingly competitive market; the need for effective strategic management is imperative. This need has spurred the conceptualization of several management theories. Naturally, as delivery on promise differed, some have fared better than others.

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I recently came across a case study, published just last month, titled "Information System Effects on Organizations Balanced Scorecard Work". This study was focused exclusively on the ESM application – something our team believes to be the first of its kind!

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To follow up on Kent's recent post, I'd like to remove my "Strategic Hat" for a few moments, and dive into the more uncharted territory (for me) of operational management. Historically, most organizations managed their strategic and business requirements as distinct silos. However, today's management processes need to maintain a firm footing in both areas.

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After nearly 10 years in the strategy space certifying many of the big name business intelligence software vendors out there for their Balanced Scorecard module (meaning that their business performance management software meets the minimum standards for building and managing scorecards), I've formulated a concrete opinion on how most differ from the Executive Strategy Manager. I've seen cases where both types of applications are needed, neither is needed, and just one will meet the needs of the organization.

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I just got off the phone with an associate in Atlanta and things are really hurting down there. While I'm all for freedom of speech and freedom to pray for water (as recommended by some officials in the region), I wonder if the key water suppliers in that area had a more defined strategic approach in the form of a scorecard, would this crisis have been less extreme?

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Organizations must link their strategy to operations and without this crucial connection, true change will never occur. Organizations today are bombarded with more data in a quarter than they can analyze in a decade, and as you know, data is absolutely useless unless it is converted into some type of meaning or context.

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